Birdbooker Report 216

Compiled by an ardent bibliophile, this weekly report includes books about the prehistory of human homes, what it's like to be a bird and much more that have been newly published in North America and the UK

Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky,My pile of books is a mile high.How I love them! How I need them!I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

~ Arnold Lobel [1933-1987] author of many popular children's books.

Compiled by Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, the Birdbooker Report is a weekly report that has been published online for years, listing the wide variety of nature, natural history, ecology, animal behaviour, science and history books that have been newly released or republished in North America and in the UK. The books listed here were received by Ian during the previous week, courtesy of various publishing houses.

New and Recent Titles:

Little, Rob and Tim Crowe. Gamebirds of Southern Africa (2nd edition). 2011. Struik Nature. Hardbound: 135 pages. Price: $33.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US]. SUMMARY: This lavish book presents the 21 upland gamebird species from southern Africa: francolins and spurfowls (12 species), quails (3 species), guineafowls (2 species) and sandgrouse (4 species). The authoritative text is matched by detailed and beautifully illustrated plates of each species. An essential book for bird and art lovers, as well as the conservation-minded. The text draws on the large body of scientific research accumulated over decades, and the illustrated plates of each species are works of art, conveying in painstaking detail each species' diagnostic features and precise environment.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: The artwork by Simon Barlow highlights this book! For anyone with an interest in the birds of the region.

Sibley, David. Sibley Backyard Birding Flashcards: 100 Common Birds of Eastern and Western North America. 2012. Potter Style. Box with 100 cards. Price: $14.99 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US]. SUMMARY: Learn to identify your backyard birds with the help of leading ornithologist David Sibley. Inside this box you'll find one deck of 50 common Western and Eastern North American birds and one deck of 50 common birds found across North America. Each card features vibrant illustrations and captions about behavior and voice description for easy identification. IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A useful tool for beginning birders.

Birkhead, Tim. Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird. 2012. Walker & Company. Hardbound: 265 pages. Price: $25.00 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle]. SUMMARY: Most people would love to be able to fly like a bird, but few of us are aware of the other sensations that make being a bird a gloriously unique experience. What is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise? How do desert birds detect rain hundreds of kilometers away? How do birds navigate by using an innate magnetic compass? Tracing the history of how our knowledge about birds has grown, particularly through advances in technology over the past fifty years, Bird Sense tells captivating stories about how birds interact with one another and their environment. More advanced testing methods have debunked previously held beliefs, such as female starlings selecting mates based on how symmetrical the male's plumage markings are. (Whereas females can discern the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical markings, they are not very good at detecting small differences among symmetrically marked males!) Never before has there been a popular book about how intricately bird behavior is shaped by birds' senses. A lifetime spent studying birds has provided Tim Birkhead with a wealth of fieldwork experiences, insights, and a unique understanding of birds, all firmly grounded in science. No one who reads Bird Sense can fail to be dazzled by it.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A note for North American readers: the author uses the British common name for Uria aalge -- guillemot -- instead of common murre. This book is a readable introduction into how birds perceive the world around them.

Lewis, Daniel. The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds. 2012. Yale University Press. Hardbound: 346 pages. Price: $45.00. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle]. SUMMARY: Amateurs and professionals studying birds at the end of the nineteenth century were a contentious, passionate group with goals that intersected, collided and occasionally merged in their writings and organizations. Driven by a desire to advance science, as well as by ego, pride, honor, insecurity, religion and other clashing sensibilities, they struggled to absorb the implications of evolution after Darwin. In the process, they dramatically reshaped the study of birds. Daniel Lewis here explores the professionalization of ornithology through one of its key figures: Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian Institution's first curator of birds and one of North America's most important natural scientists. Exploring a world in which the uses of language, classification and accountability between amateurs and professionals played essential roles, Lewis offers a vivid introduction to Ridgway and shows how his work fundamentally influenced the direction of American and international ornithology. He explores the inner workings of the Smithsonian and the role of collectors working in the field and reveals previously unknown details of the ornithological journal The Auk and the untold story of the color dictionaries for which Ridgway is known.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A detailed biography of one of the pioneers of American ornithology.

Moore, Jerry D. The Prehistory of Home. 2012. University of California Press. Hardbound: 269 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle]. SUMMARY: Many animals build shelters, but only humans build homes. No other species creates such a variety of dwellings. Drawing examples from across the archaeological record and around the world, archaeologist Jerry D. Moore recounts the cultural development of the uniquely human imperative to maintain domestic dwellings. He shows how our houses allow us to physically adapt to the environment and conceptually order the cosmos, and explains how we fabricate dwellings and, in the process, construct our lives. The Prehistory of Home points out how houses function as symbols of equality or proclaim the social divides between people, and how they shield us not only from the elements, but increasingly from inchoate fear.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: If you ever wondered about the origin and meaning of Home, here's the book for you!

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Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen is an avid and well-known book collector, especially to the publishing world. Mr Paulsen collects newly-published books about nature, animals and birds, science, and history, and he also collects children's books on these topics. Mr Paulsen writes brief synopses about these books on his website, The Birdbooker Report.